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The Introduction

Having only met members of the StreetInvest team a few weeks ago my placement, with a mix of apprehension, uncertainty and excitement, now begins next week. This whole second year has been a blur of essays, field trips and exams. Now, my dissertation looms illustrating the time-old saying that time really does fly.

During exam season I haven’t had time to concentrate my attention on my dissertation idea. As a result, my idea has remained the same for some weeks. At the moment, I wish to explore LGB youth’s experiences of coming out and the subsequent impacts of this. StreetInvest’s work will help me to understand how this can often lead to displacement and youth’s becoming ‘street orientated’. StreetInvest’s work is vital to attaining rich and detailed data because they work street children. StreetInvest (to put it very simply) work through partner links and trained trusted adults to help youth’s get where they want to be. There are currently many NGO’s across the globe which provide this service however, StreetInvest operate differently. The NGO, unlike others, doesn’t have a concrete end goal which every single child should attain e.g. to go to school or live at home again. Instead, trusted adults work with them to help the child envision or act upon a future that they see for themselves. To get more of an in depth view of what StreetInvest do the link is below:

Heading into the placement I have many ideas as to what the two weeks will have in store for me. Firstly, I want to build on ideas previously learnt in second year such as how NGOs operate in their policy and practice. Secondly, (in my own small way) I want to contribute to StreetInvest’s work through my research. Finally, this placement for me is not only a chance to conduct dissertation research but also an important insight into the world of work.

Anticipating the beginning, I now have to create interview questions and organise my thoughts to make the most of my time with StreetInvest.